This chapter suggests that the decade between thirty and forty is when women today make the hardest choices: whether to seek a fast-track position after securing their degree; whether to have a ...
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This chapter suggests that the decade between thirty and forty is when women today make the hardest choices: whether to seek a fast-track position after securing their degree; whether to have a child; whether to stay on the fast track after having a child or to leave the race and find a less competitive role. They face new and formidable challenges, and there are rarely second chances if they opt out. This is also the decade when the career and family trajectories of men and women distinctly diverge. Many women leave the fast track during these years to accommodate motherhood, but few men do so for fatherhood. Men who remain on the fast track are more likely to have children than career women. In both work and family measures, men and women are no longer on an equal footing.Less

The Make-or-Break Years: Thirty to Forty

Mary Ann MasonEve Mason Ekman

Published in print: 2007-06-18

This chapter suggests that the decade between thirty and forty is when women today make the hardest choices: whether to seek a fast-track position after securing their degree; whether to have a child; whether to stay on the fast track after having a child or to leave the race and find a less competitive role. They face new and formidable challenges, and there are rarely second chances if they opt out. This is also the decade when the career and family trajectories of men and women distinctly diverge. Many women leave the fast track during these years to accommodate motherhood, but few men do so for fatherhood. Men who remain on the fast track are more likely to have children than career women. In both work and family measures, men and women are no longer on an equal footing.

This chapter suggests that most women are neither steadily rising to equal representation in top positions, nor dropping out in large numbers. Research shows that highly educated women rarely leave ...
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This chapter suggests that most women are neither steadily rising to equal representation in top positions, nor dropping out in large numbers. Research shows that highly educated women rarely leave their chosen profession entirely. Instead they become caught in a “second tier” within or allied with their profession where they take breaks for family needs but return to work, sometimes on a reduced schedule but frequently full time, until retirement. It is between ages thirty and forty that women change career direction, and this is the decade when women are mostly likely to drop into the second tier. The discussion argues that the key to advancement is figuring out the “mother problem.” Children are a wonder and a blessing, not a problem; but motherhood is.Less

The “Mother Problem”: Up, Out, or Sidelined?

Mary Ann MasonEve Mason Ekman

Published in print: 2007-06-18

This chapter suggests that most women are neither steadily rising to equal representation in top positions, nor dropping out in large numbers. Research shows that highly educated women rarely leave their chosen profession entirely. Instead they become caught in a “second tier” within or allied with their profession where they take breaks for family needs but return to work, sometimes on a reduced schedule but frequently full time, until retirement. It is between ages thirty and forty that women change career direction, and this is the decade when women are mostly likely to drop into the second tier. The discussion argues that the key to advancement is figuring out the “mother problem.” Children are a wonder and a blessing, not a problem; but motherhood is.

This book is about women’s careers, how they think about and enact their working lives, and how these patterns change, or stay the same, over time. It focuses on seventeen women, based in the same ...
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This book is about women’s careers, how they think about and enact their working lives, and how these patterns change, or stay the same, over time. It focuses on seventeen women, based in the same northern English city but working in a variety of occupations, who left their organizational positions to set up their own businesses. In 1993/4 they participated in a research study of this career transition, and a decade and a half later were interviewed for a second time. Imagining Women’s Careers is based on these accounts. It investigates the women’s transition to self-employment and on-going career development; contextual change between the two periods and why, in career terms, this mattered; their experiences of late career and retirement; and the role of others in their career-making. In conclusion, the concept of the career imagination is introduced, defining and delimiting what is possible, legitimate, and appropriate in career terms, and prescribing its own criteria for success. In part, the book is about change: women moving from young to middle, or middle to old age; society moving out of and back into recession; an academic literature which has deconstructed and redefined the concept of career itself. However, it is also about continuity: enduring relationships, commitments to people and places, deeply held values and identities. It is over twenty years since scholars began to question the adequacy of the extant career theory for illuminating women’s lives and since then the literature has developed apace. This book contributes to these on-going debates.Less

Imagining Women's Careers

Laurie Cohen

Published in print: 2014-09-25

This book is about women’s careers, how they think about and enact their working lives, and how these patterns change, or stay the same, over time. It focuses on seventeen women, based in the same northern English city but working in a variety of occupations, who left their organizational positions to set up their own businesses. In 1993/4 they participated in a research study of this career transition, and a decade and a half later were interviewed for a second time. Imagining Women’s Careers is based on these accounts. It investigates the women’s transition to self-employment and on-going career development; contextual change between the two periods and why, in career terms, this mattered; their experiences of late career and retirement; and the role of others in their career-making. In conclusion, the concept of the career imagination is introduced, defining and delimiting what is possible, legitimate, and appropriate in career terms, and prescribing its own criteria for success. In part, the book is about change: women moving from young to middle, or middle to old age; society moving out of and back into recession; an academic literature which has deconstructed and redefined the concept of career itself. However, it is also about continuity: enduring relationships, commitments to people and places, deeply held values and identities. It is over twenty years since scholars began to question the adequacy of the extant career theory for illuminating women’s lives and since then the literature has developed apace. This book contributes to these on-going debates.

This chapter introduces the study and sets the scene for the rest of the book, situating the study within extant debates on the nature and development of women’s careers. It argues that although ...
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This chapter introduces the study and sets the scene for the rest of the book, situating the study within extant debates on the nature and development of women’s careers. It argues that although movement over time is fundamental to the concept of career, in practice careers research rarely adequately captures this aspect and asks how attention to this temporal dimension illuminates existing understandings. Empirically, it establishes the context in which the study was carried out, focusing specifically on the economic setting—from recession to recession; the rise of the ideology of enterprise; large scale organizational change and restructuring; the changing nature of women’s work and careers. It finishes by providing an overview of the book.Less

Women’s Career Lives: 1993–2010

Laurie Cohen

Published in print: 2014-09-25

This chapter introduces the study and sets the scene for the rest of the book, situating the study within extant debates on the nature and development of women’s careers. It argues that although movement over time is fundamental to the concept of career, in practice careers research rarely adequately captures this aspect and asks how attention to this temporal dimension illuminates existing understandings. Empirically, it establishes the context in which the study was carried out, focusing specifically on the economic setting—from recession to recession; the rise of the ideology of enterprise; large scale organizational change and restructuring; the changing nature of women’s work and careers. It finishes by providing an overview of the book.